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I~ MARINE LAW. INSPECTION LAWS WITHIN TEE LIMITS OF OUR STATE, The Marine Journal of June 7 reports a case involving the inspection laws, in which it is decided that they are not binding on boats employed in commerce within the limits of ore state. Saturday Judge Sage gave his oppinion in the case of the United States vs. John C. Powers and others, which was an action brought some time ago by the United States for the alleged violation, by the boat Gretna Green, owned by the defendants, of the Revised Statutes relating to the equipment of steamers. ‘The boat towed barges, on which were a number of passengers, trom Maysville, Kentucky, to the Fair Grounds ‘in the same State, and had not the equip- ments specified by the Inspectors Service, which the United States officials held they were required to, but which the defendants denied in their demurrer, claiming that they were engaged solely in inter-state commerce, and did not come under the proviso of the statute or statutes cited. In considering the case Judge Sage referred to several decisions of the United States Supreme Court, in which it was held that the power of Congress comprehends navigation within the limits -of every State in the Union, so far as that navigation may be connected with commerce with foreign nations amongst the several States, etc,; that all laws passed by Congress in the regulation of commerce is but the exercise of an undisputed power, and when a State lawis repugnant to a law of Con- gress the State law must give way, after which he held the following: “In this case the limitation of the power of Congress to control the commerce among the several States is distinctly recognized, and also that Congress has no power to make navigation laws for or to-control the commerce which is entirely within the limits of a State. Ina the case at bar the petiton shows that the barges were being towed from one point in Kentucky to another pvint in the same State, and that her trips had no’ connection whatever with any point outside of Ken- tucky, and the navigation laws of the United States then clearly do not apply. Although the Gretna Green was subject to the laws of United States, yet the mere fact that she took in tow these barges had nothing to do with any interferance with the proper navi- gation of the Ohio. In the judgment of the court the navigation laws of the United States have no application to this case. The demurrer is sustained.” PLUCK vs. LUCK. In an address delivered before the students of the Spencerian Business College, Wash- ington, D. C., June 29, 1869, among other things, General James A. Garfield said: “Now, young gentlemen, let me fora moment address you touching yous success in life; and I hope the very brevity of my remarks will increase the chance of their making a lodgement in your minds. Let me beg you, in the outset of your career, to dismiss from your minds all ideas of suc- ceeding by luck. There is no more common thought among young. people than that foolish One, that by-and-by something will turn up by which they will suddenly achieve ame or fortune. No, young gentlemen, things don’t turn up in this world unless somebody turns them up. Inertia is one of the indispensable laws of matter, and things lie flat where they are until by some intelligence (for nothing but spirit makés motion in this world” they are endowed with activity and life.) Do not dream that some good luck is going to happen to you and give youa fortune, Luck is an ignis fatuus—you may follow it to ruin, but not to succéss. The great Napoleon, who be- lieved in his destiny, followed it until he saw his star go down in blackest night, when the Old Guard perished around him, and Waterloo was lost. A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. “Yourg men talk of trusting to the spur of the occasion. ‘That trust is vain. Occasions cannot make spurs, youny gentlemen. If ycu expect to wear spurs you must win them. If you wish to use them you must buckle them to your own heels before you gointo the fight. Any success you may achieve is not worth the having unless you fight for it. Whatever you win in life you must conquer by your own efforts, and then itis yours—a part of yourself,” .| Washington letter stares the promised bene- SAHARA SEA, Some objections have been staved with reference to this proposed inland sea, A fits of the lake to be formed: The project is to connect by a canal twelve meters deep and fifty meters wide the mouth of the little Oued-me-lah, emptying into the Gulf of Gabes, with the four depressions— Fejej, Djerid, Rarsa, and Melrir. ‘They lie in a right line from east to west about fitty kilometers south of the mountains of Aures, bordering on the Sahara. Of these Rarsa, whose surface is thirty meters below the sea level, is on the south frontier of ‘Tunis; itg basin will be twice as long as Lake Geneva, and will- contain 100 miliards cubic meters of water. They are to form the lake. The physical advantages as_ well as the practica- bility of the work, have been discussed again and again by the academy of sciences in Paris since the first exploration of the gulf by Mouchez in 1877, and the firet presenta- tion of the project by Roudaire. A committee of distinguished members of the academy to whom Roudaire’s plan was referred reported that the existence of this large body of water south of the Aures must exercise a very favorable intluence upon countries now sterile, and open up the heart of Africa to European civilization. The spe- cific physical advantages will be the amel- ioration of the waters of the new sea. Ar- rested: by the snow-capped heights, these will be condensed into clouds and fruittul rains. It is not to be forgotten that this re- gion was part of the fertile. granary of old Rome. “Wherever the soil of Tunis is tilled,” says United States Consul Perry, “it still justifies its ancient renown, encouraging the brightest hopes for the future.’’ De Lesseps.expects to see the old cities, the ruins of which are here scattered, renew themselves around the basin of the chotts, within one of which the remains of an-an- cient gallery have been found. Their re- newal must depend ona renewed fertility of soil, and this upon a new supply of water from evaporation. ‘The report made to the academy estimates this as 39,690,000 cubic meters of water a day; a quantity sufficient to cover the whole city of ‘unis and Algeria with a half saturated layer of air twenty- four meters in depth. Reasoning by analo- gy from the evaporation of the Bitter lakes lying in the same lattitude and having a like climate, Roudaire estimates the daily evap- oration as the same with that of those lakes; his observations made in the chotts with the evaporometer of Piche, showed the double of this on the days of the sirucco. The sir- occo which now destroys vegetation in Al- geria, fertilizes France by bringing to it the watery vapor absorbed in its passage across the Mediterranean. To restore vegetation to Algeria a like ab- sorption is needed of watery vapor raised by the sun from the surface of the rew lake. What. has turned this old, fertile land into a barren waste? The want of tillage and de- struction uf the forests, with the other evils of war, creating a desert within which the extremes of temperature arising from the want of aqueous vapor blasts vegetation. Tyndall has shown that at least 10 per cent. of the earth’s radiated heat is intercer ted within the first ten feet above its surface, and that the full removal of this watery va- por for a single summer night would destroy every plant which frost kills. In the desert, although “the soil is fire and the wind is flame.” ice at times forms ina night. In the hot region the thermometer often falls sixty degrees in twenty-four hours, Restore an aqueous vapor to spread itself over such a region and you restore fertility, and with it a population, industry and the extension ofcommerce. New industries may appear— fishing and the establishment of salt works, salt being very scarce in the interior of Af- rica, selling in the markets at 150 francs a kilogramme (2.2 pounds.) The seven years’ investigation of Rou- daire and the labors of De Lesseps have not been for the cause of science half as much as for the interest of France, for which the minister of public instruction has employed them, The region in question has been specially in mind ever since the extension of French influence in the province of Con- stantine, Whatis needed is a barrier on the | frontier of Algeria and Tunis against the swift incursions of the Tripolitan Bedouins and other flerce tribes, and the opening up | | of large size in her hull, to the south of a way for troops and their commissariat. De Lesseps claims that France will possess an admirable frontier, which, prolonged through the great trans- verse valley Oned-djeddi, will permit the exercise of as firm authority of the south border of Algeria as France now has on her Mediterranean shore. French occupation, begun by the cruel wars of 1830-47, has been steadily extending itself np to the recent es- tablishment of the protectorate oyer ‘unis, Intercourse with the city by travel or cor- respondence trom abroad ie permissable as our state department was informed two years ago, through the resident French con- sul only. In Jyne last Germany recognized the French protectorate. ‘The enterprise now on foot has full political significance. France must occupy her restless minds with the eclat of military glory, and secure some share with her rivals in newly acquired po- sessions. Her Tunis is the finest position of North Africa. “Commercial preponder- ance and the control of the Mediterranean are the attractions for the powers which have disputed with each other tor its pos- session or neutralization.” In 1869 United States consul Perry, from whom the last sentence is quoted, wrote thus: ‘Tunisia is destitute of the life and progress, which alone can long save her from falling an easy prey to a stronger power.”’ RATE OF SPEED. The Marine Enginecr says the speed and enormous capacity of the modera Atlantic liners is increasing so rapidly that it is dif- ficult to foresee what may not have been effected in the revolution of our Atlanti traffic in the next few years. Many enthusi- astic inventors have suggested at different times modification in the hull and. method of driving large steamers which should bring the rate of speed on a par with that of our railways. This has always seemed to us, as no doubt it has to other. practical men, an idea more imaginative than likely to be realized by any startling revolution of con- struction. We see, however, that we have the authority of a very practical and impor- tant builder, Mr. James R. Thompson, fora statement that he foresees in afew years the coming Atlantic steamship will be propelled by twin screws at least at five and twenty knots, and would in that case carry no cargo, her profit lying in the fact that she could make from fifty to one hundred per cent. more trips ina given time. It is obvious that the general adoption of twin machinery would greatly reduce the probabilities of accidents and obviate the necessity of carry- ing masts or sails. Small details of improve- ment also in the boilers and engines are constantly enabling steamers to generate increased speed with little or no increase of consumption of fuel. We hear on good authority that avery large number of the liners lately built on the Clyde are fitted with Fox’s corrugated steel furnaces, which are said to effect a saving of from ten to fourteen per cent. TRANSVERSE BULKHEADS. The value of a thorough and efficient system of transverse bulkheads was very strikingly evidenced by an unintentional ex- | periment which occurred some time ago at Spezzia with the numerous torpedo boats owned by the Italian Government. A series of experiments were being carried out by the torpedo boats inside the breakwater in the Gulf of Spezzia, the boats running at about fourteen knots. ‘I'wo accidently eame into collision, the speed being reduced to about ten knots before actually striking. One of the torpedo boats was struck on the starboard bow by the ram of the second torpedo boat. ‘The ram absolutely penetrated | from one side to the other, driving a ragged hole through both skins. The injured torpedo boat, however, succeeded in getting to port, being saved chiefly by the protection of the watertight bulkhead and by the action of powerful pumping machinery. This latter is also a point to which we have often di-| rected attention, namely, that with the present powerful steam machinery on board our modern vessels, from the smallest to the | largest, it would be easy to develop so much pumping power that it would be practically | possible to keep the vessel afloat with a leak The torpedo boat in question was fitted with a new arrange- ment by means of which, if the stokehole | should become flooded, the fire is not ex- tinguished.— Marine Engineer. —_$——— NEW PROPELLERS. ‘Two new propellers have just been com- pleted at Collingwood for the Northern ‘Transit Company. ‘They are to run between Collingwood and Sault St. Marie, along the north shore of Georgian Bay, and cost near- ly $100,000. ‘hey are named respéctively the Atlantic and Pacific. ‘The Pacitic is 180 feet long and thirty-one feet beam, with con- cave sides, and very fine lines fore and aft. Her engines and boilers are placed near the centre of the,boat, by which it is claimed several important advantages are secured, viz: High rate of speed, easy handling about the wharves and in and out of the Lumerous intricate channels of the north shore, She is also made independent of bal- lasting, and lastly, her wide beam and con- cave sides insures great steadiness, and thus prevents rolling to a great extent. Her boiler and machinery are of the best, and every precaution has been taken to prevent fire. ‘The Atlantic is a sister ship of similar build, and in ber, asin the Pacific, the same strength of coustruction, thorough work- manship, and genega security is to be found. BALLOON STEERING. An exchange says a Mr. Schultz, of New York, has conceived an idea of entirely avoid- ing accidents in consequence of fog. We need not remark upon the enormous percentage of accidents that happen on this account, there- fore any protection that can be devised will be eagerly welcomed by shipowners. We fear, however, that the suggestion of Mr. Schultz is somewhat both practically and figuratively in the clouds. He proposes to provide all vessels with balloons of sufficient capacity to carry a person high enough above the fog tc see similar balloons frem other vessels which may be in the vicinity. The balloons would evidently be attached to the vessel by a cable, preferably formed ot wire, through which electrical communication can be had with the deck of the vessel, sv as to give the necessary directions for steering. We think it muy be taken for granted, with justice, that on the occasion of dense sea fog on the surface of the water, the fog does not extend to any very great height above the surface of the water. ‘he idea seems theretore feasible. ‘The relative positions of differer.t vessels would be communicated from the lookout man in the balloon down to the dock, and the direction of the vessel so guided, so that there need not be any occasion to slacken speed. Itis evident that for snch a system to be of any use it would be necessary that all vessels should be pro- vided with an aerial look-out which they should be obliged to use in the case of a fog. It is curious that this new adaption of balloons to practical work is just one hundred years since the introduction of the first balloon by Mongolifer. NIAGARA FALLS. The Niagara Falls Park Commission adopted the following resolution: ‘That in the judgment of the board it is desirable to select and locate, as proper and necessary to be purchased for the purpose of preserving the scenery of the Falls of Niagara, and re- storing said scenery to its natural condition, the following lands: Guat Island, the Three Sisters Islands, Bird Island, Luna Island, and the small islands adjacent to said islands aad the mainland in the State of New York; and also the bed of said river between Goat Island and the Canadian boundary ; also the |strip of land beginning near Fort Day, in said village running along the shore of said river to and including Prospect Park, the cliff and debris slope, ‘The amount of prop- erty to be secured will not, it is believed, exceed $1,000,000, a - - A perfect model of a ship with the stern and side propellers, a recent invention at Dallas, Tex., was placed in a pond of water, steam raised, and the stern propeller first putin motion, It crossed the pound in 101, seconds. Then all three weve set going. when the tiny ship crossed in six seconds. Thus the speed was increased 45 per cent., and the facet demonstrated, apparently, that {usteamship which crosses the Atlantic in }seven days can with this new attachment | cross itin four, The inventor is confident | of increasing the speed ot steamships 60 per cent, Tt runs much faster than with the stern Wheel working in reverse,